DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF News) – Southwest Airlines is extending its grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 8 flights by two months and it’s a situation that could have a major impact on the busy summer travel season.
The Dallas-based company announced Thursday, it will extend the grounding from its initial June deadline to August 5th.
Southwest has 34 of the 737 Max aircraft in its fleet.
In a post on the company’s website, Southwest President Tom Nealon said the move was an effort to “further increase the reliability of our schedule and reduce the amount of last-minute flight changes,” he said.
Nealon also said the company will notify customers who have already booked their travel well in advance.
In March, Southwest and Fort Worth-based American Airlines were among a myriad of carriers who grounded the 737 Max planes in the wake of the deadly Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air plane crashes.
Investigators are still looking into the crashes which killed 346 people.
The situation caused widespread cancellations nationwide.
Meanwhile, Boeing has accepted responsibility for the software glitch that caused the crashes and the company said it’s working on a software update to make the planes safe for travel.
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